This is a very useful
box – no, that sounds pedestrian; this
box collates the work of two important
musicians in fine performances that
shed no real light one on the other,
but it serves instead to point to the
divergent strands in American piano
music between 1890 and 1920. MacDowell
of course was the bardic upholder of
Germanic traditions and Griffes the
hothouse embracer of the new music;
impressionism, the Russians and the
diaphanous.

By a programming decision
the MacDowell Sonatas are presented
in reverse chronological order, one
to a disc. The First, Tragica, opens
intensely, with powerful Germanic pull.
Its remorseless incline to the overwhelming
is immediately undercut by a very skittish
Scherzo (and the notes aver unconvincing
in the context of the Sonata as a whole,
with which opinion I have to agree).
The re-imposition of Schumannesque-Lisztian
power comes in the romanticised legato
of the slow movement, topped by an "eroico"
finale of rather more energy than real
direction. The Second Sonata is genuinely
subtitled Eroica. It opens pensively,
then grows in declamatory power with
heavy pounding chordal drive. This time
his Scherzo, whilst winsome, is far
more congruous in its Grieg-like elfin
lightness. Does he quote from Pictures
at an Exhibition in the finale, after
the touching slow movement? Conscious
or not, he certainly summons up a noble
peroration; for all that MacDowell has
been written off as a tireless pianistic
note spinner in these sonatas, there
is something laudable about his compass
and his ambition. No. 3 the Norse
is, like the Fourth and last, in
a more concise three-movement form.
Amidst the nobility and grandeur of
the first movement there is an admixture
of tenderness and the familiarly striving
themes of the finale are touched as
well by pensive moments. The last sonata,
Keltic, swims in lapping insistence
and bardic strength; there is a tensile
strength to the opening movement and
a reiteration of mood that gives the
Maestoso opening a real sense of continuum.
The restatement of themes is in the
grand late nineteenth century tradition
but Tocco’s dynamics emphasise the bigness
of gesture for which MacDowell strives.
The alternating semplice and violence
of the slow movement convey an ambivalence
reinforced by the dramatic repeated
chords at the end. We can be sue we
are in the grip of some form of narrative
but never quite sure how deep we’ve
gone, and that’s always the more challenging
feeling.

Griffes’ only Sonata
is a powerfully and intermittently convincing
one. In three movements it embraces
tense drama, melodic seriousness, diffuse
and hidden reflection, and in the finale
a toccata-like eruptive drive. In MacDowell’s
case this would have been a direct descendent
of Schumann – but not with Griffes whose
musical sympathies were broader and
more flexible. Griffes’ Four Roman Sketches,
so evocative and so beloved by titanic
colourist conductors such as Stokowski
remains one of his best know works.
Nightfall crests Debussyan waves
and Ravel haunts the opening of The
Fountain of the Acqua Paola before
some visceral and taxing writing dissipates
the influence. In Clouds Griffes
evokes diaphanous impressionism with
the most acute of touches; the sense
of time and motion is palpable, the
listless movement above almost visual.
His three tiny Preludes are full of
the deepest impressionism and concision.

Griffes’ rather Brahmsian
Rhapsody is certainly full of rather
splintery rhetoric but he is more himself
in the Fantasy Pieces where the gentle
rocking of the Barcarolle takes on a
slight and unsettling insistence despite
its descriptively innocent name. It’s
a pity that the recording here proves
to be somewhat hard and unyielding.
The acoustic contains MacDowell’s poetry-and–drama
but is not quite so receptive to the
tracery and ambiguity of Griffes. I
was slightly surprised by De Profundis
which is rather more winsome than
one would expect of a piece with that
title. The Pleasure Dome ofKubla
Khan probably offers so many chances
for exoticism for a composer that it’s
difficult to know how to contain oneself.
This is a piece better known in its
orchestral raiment though it was originally
written for piano. Griffes offers ripple
and evocation spiced with glorious impressionist
languor, as in his Three Tone Pictures
he gives us chromaticist swirl. The
1915 Legend, not published until 1972,
completes this set.

There are none of MacDowell’s
bonbons here, just the big Sonatas and
they contrast forcefully with his compatriot’s
works. Tocco is leonine in the bristle
of MacDowell but the up-front recording
does him fewer favours in Griffes. Still
– don’t forego the experience of these
two streams of American piano composition
in all their individual power.

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